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Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, July 13

AustralianSuper's new Asian committee, China AMC boss starts, Henderson Global names Australia head, Moelis India appoints CEO, HP Wealth Management expands, HSBC snares Khazanah alumnus, and law firm Loeb & Loeb promotes three.
Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, July 13

AustralianSuper establishes Asian advisory committee 
Melbourne-based AustralianSuper has set up an Asian advisory committee and appointed Bernie Fraser, former governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, as chairman. (See below for details of the other committee members.)

The $45 billion retirement fund says the initiative recognises the importance of Asia as a key driver to deliver strong investment returns for its 1.8 million members.

This initiative builds on the appointment in February of Stephen Joske as senior manager for Asia to run the new Beijing office and oversee Asian investment strategy across all asset classes.

AustralianSuper has a net cash inflow of close to $4 billion a year and expects to grow to $100 billion by 2016.

AustralianSuper already has significant exposure to Asia and emerging markets generally. Around 6% of the firm's balanced investment option’s assets (around $3 billion) are in Asia, and this is expected to grow to around $7 billion by 2016.

The committee will comprise:

  • Bernie Fraser: governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from September 1989 to September 1996 and secretary of the treasury from 1984 to 1989. Before that he was director of the National Energy Office from 1981 to 1984. Until recently, he was a director of AustralianSuper, a position he has held for 15 years;
  • Paul Chow Man Yiu: CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing from 2003 to 2010, and Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) CEO of HSBC Asset Management from 1997 to 2003. Chow was also chairman of the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association from January 2000 to September 2001. He is currently a non-executive director of Bank of China;
  • Philip Yan Hok Fan: He recently joined the board of ASX-listed property company Goodman Group. He was formerly executive director and general manager of financial services firm China Everbright International and remains a non-executive director there. Yan is also a former executive director of Citic Pacific;
  • John Harrison: He worked at KPMG from 1977 to 2010, culminating with the position of deputy global chairman, and previously also served as chairman of KPMG Asia-Pacific and of KPMG China. He is a non-executive director for insurer AIA Group and for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing;
  • Raymundo Yu Jr: He is Asia-Pacific chairman at Threadneedle Investments in Singapore. He previously spent 27 years in wealth management, global markets and investment banking at Merrill Lynch International, most recently as Asia-Pacific chairman from 2000 to 2008.
  • Elana Rubin, chair of AustralianSuper.

New China AMC head approved to start role
Teng Tianming officially started as general manager at China Asset Management, the mainland’s biggest fund house, on July 5. He was named acting general manager in May and was granted approval to take up the role on July 2 by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Teng replaces Fan Yonghong, who resigned “for personal reasons” in May, according to Chinese media reports. Fan was the longest serving general manager in the history of China’s funds industry, having worked in the position since China AMC was founded in 1998.

In April, Wang Yawei, China’s most famous fund manager, quit the company. Wang had also worked at China AMC for 14 years and had most recently been deputy general manager and chairman of the investment committee.

As of September 30, China AMC’s AUM stood at Rmb189.90 billion ($29.8 billion).

Henderson hires head of new Australian business
Henderson Global Investors has promoted Nick Evans to executive director of its Australian fund-management business. He began in this newly created role on July 9, having previously been the firm’s director of indirect property for seven years.

Evans will work with Rob Adams, executive chairman of the newly launched Australian business. Adams also recently joined the UK- and Australia-listed fund house in May, after a stint as CEO at Challenger Funds Management, as reported by AsianInvestor.

Asked about Henderson’s planned investment strategy in Australia, a spokesman says: “We have yet to decide what our product range will consist of. It is important first to fully scope the market out and understand where demand lies, what that demand is and who we can best serve those demands. This is Rob and Nick’s first task.”

Despite entering the Australian market at a difficult time, the group sees opportunities there. “Australia is one of the most sophisticated markets in the world driven by its compulsory pension structure and well developed intermediary market,” notes the spokesman. “It is our intention to build a scalable, pure funds business; this is not a short-term play for us.”

Evans began his career in 2000 at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Frankfurt. That was followed by a one-year stint as a surveyor at DTZ International Property Advisors, before he joined Henderson.

As of March 31, the firm had AUM of A$102.9 billion ($104.6 billion). Some of Henderson’s key clients include the Future Fund (Australia’s sovereign wealth fund) and AMP, an Australian and New Zealand wealth-management firm.

In March 1998, Henderson was acquired by AMP, but subsequently de-merged. However, Henderson’s Australia and New Zealand investment-management operations were retained by AMP.

New Moelis India CEO mulls local AM business
US boutique investment bank Moelis & Company has hired Manisha Girotra as chief executive for its new Indian subsidiary.

Having started in her newly created role in Mumbai on July 12, she tells AsianInvestor she may build an asset-management arm in the future. But the bank will initially focus on developing areas including cross-border transactions and restructuring.

Girotra reports to London-based Mark Aedy, managing director and head of Emea and Asia investment banking.

She was most recently CEO and country head at UBS India and had spent 16 years at the Swiss bank. She managed the investment bank, commercial bank, markets, equity research and wealth-management divisions.

Moelis has 12 locations around the world, including Asian offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Sydney. In Mumbai, the bank is looking to hire an additional 10 new members in the coming 12 months.

HP Wealth Management snares Schmid, plans more hires
Singapore-based HP Wealth Management appointed Stephane Schmid as an equity partner on July 1. The new role will see him develop his own book of business.

Schmid has 20 years’ experience in wealth management, including stints at UBS in Geneva and New York, before he moved to Singapore to work for Pictet, where he was managing director.

HP, a subsidiary of Swiss firm Horus Partners Wealth Management Group, plans to add more people in the coming year or two, especially in attracting new wealth managers, says Michael Foo, partner and chief investment officer. However, it wants to remain small in size.

Khazanah alumnus joins HSBC in Malaysia
HSBC Malaysia named Roni Abdul Wahab as its new managing director and head of global banking Malaysia as of June 25. It is understood the post has been vacant for two years, but a spokeswoman declined to say who held the role previously.

Wahab reports locally to Mukhtar Hussain, CEO of HSBC Bank Malaysia and global CEO of HSBC Amanah, and functionally to Tou Chen Chang, head of global banking for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore.

Wahab was most recently head of Malaysia coverage at Credit Suisse, and prior to that a director in the investments division at Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional.

Loeb & Loeb expands China practice
Law firm Loeb & Loeb has hired Roger Peng as a partner in its representative office in Beijing. He began in the newly created role on July 1 and his coverage includes M&A, private equity and venture capital.

Peng represents clients including investment funds in PE transactions. He also acts on behalf of acquirers and targets/sellers in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

He previously worked as a partner at law firm Paul Hastings and a managing partner at Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells), both Beijing-based roles.

In China, Loeb & Loeb’s primary focus includes advisory on capital markets, M&A, private equity, venture capital and IPO/privatisation. It has expansion plans in Asia and will make further announcements in the coming months.

Other people news featured this week

MFS expands in Asia, mulls Korea office

AlpInvest puts secondary PE team in Asia

Dimensional hires Chen Peng as Asia head

PineBridge pares Asia retail business

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